The Facts of Inequality

Martin O'Neill

doi:doi:10.1163/174552410X511383

The Facts of Inequality

Martin O'Neill

Politics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This review essay looks at two important recent books on the empirical social science of inequality, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's The Spirit Level and John Hills et al.'s Towards a More Equal Society?, situating these books against the important work of Michael Marmot on epidemiology and health inequalities. I argue that political philosophy can gain a great deal from careful engagement with empirical research on the nature and consequences of inequality, especially in regard to empirical work on the relationship between socioeconomic inequality, status, self-respect, domination, autonomy, the quality of social relations, and societal health outcomes. The essay also raises some methodological questions about the approach taken by Wilkinson and Pickett, as well as questioning the ways in which their argument is (or is not) best understood as being fundamentally egalitarian in character. It concludes with some reflections, prompted by Hills et al., on the lessons that should be learned by egalitarians from the experience of the Blair and Brown governments in the UK.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	397-409
Journal	Journal of Moral Philosophy
Volume	7
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/doi:10.1163/174552410X511383
Publication status	Published - 2010

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doi:10.1163/174552410X511383

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/jmp/2010/00000007/00000003/art00008

Cite this

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